I have been doing a lot of thought about this lately because my boy loves to hang out on his cool side during the day and will only go to the warm side late at night.
I think 88 is fantastic and so long as you keep those ambient temperatures in a good range you won't need to worry so hard on the range for hot sides and cool sides. I keep my ambient temps at 82 according to the middle of the tank's air column. It seems to really make my snake enjoy the cool side more and that side stays pretty steady around 78.
You can go higher of course or even lower so I would not worry too much about your heating so long as you keep it below the mid 90s on hot sides which makes for a over heated/stressed snake and above mid 70s on cool sides which makes for a slightly sluggish snake As long as you keep it well within those ranges and offer a decent thermal range between hot and cold and most importantly offer a decent ambient temperature, you snake will thrive.
So yes, your 88 is just fine
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